A review by snipinfool
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Nobody "Bod" Owens had an unusual found family. His parents and sister were murdered when he was very young. Bod was able to escape when he heard unfamiliar noises in his house that night. He left out of the open door of his house and headed up the hill to the old cemetery. Once there, Bod found he could see the spirits of the graveyard's occupants. A husband and wife who never had children of their own agreed to take care of Bod and raise him in the cemetery. Bod was unable to tell them what his parent  called him so he was called Nobody and his last name was the name of his "parents" who took care of him. A guardian agreed to provide items like food, clothing, and other items not usually found in a cemetery. The guardian was not a dead person and was able to leave the graveyard. The inhabitants taught Bod how to read and write and shared other knowledge they had. They told him stories of places they had been and wonders they had seen. The cemetery residents did their very best to raise Bod given their limitations.


This was an interesting book. I had never considered how dead people would go about raising a living child. I think they did a pretty good job of it. Bod did have some gaps in knowledge obviously, but it was also pretty great that he was able to learn some other skills the living do not know how to do. He was able to straddle the gray area between the living and the dead. He could see and converse with the people. He could see in the dark and fade in a way so others would not notice him. I did find myself wishing for a bit more in the story. I wanted more human interactions for him. Bod's story felt two dimensional and I wanted more. Maybe that was intentional on Gaiman's part, but it did leave me wanting.
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